There have been reports of students planning to do away with their Christmas parties in order to raise money for typhoon victims. Some employees of commercial firms are planning to do the same for the same purpose. These are laudable gestures, really, because making merry while so many are suffering is simply unchristian.
But more unchristian is to fail to celebrate Christmas. Ok, out with lechon and expensive cuisines at Yuletide gatherings. Out with high-value gift-giving. But the get-together for fellowship and bonding should go on because Christmas is celebrated to celebrate love--love of your coworkers, love of your neighbors, love of even the strangers who crossed your way. Even those who had done you wrong should have a share of your heart's bounty at Christmas; after all, did not Jesus say love your enemies?
Coming together in the name of Christmas sans wine, music and a surfeit of gastronomic concoctions ---can this be done? To the hard of heart it can't be done. Lukewarm and secular, they thirst for what gratifies the senses and seek fulfillment in temporal joys. But to the sensitive heart who have distanced themselves from worldly tendencies, it can be done.
Look back to that blessed night when the angels appeared to the shepherds who actually were the first celebrants of Christmas. Were they banqueting and merry-making when the heavenly visitors showed up? Were they drinking and laughing and disco-ing? It was a silent night. It was a holy night. Silence and holiness were the shepherds' gift to the newborn King.
As we in the modem world celebrate Christmas are we not supposed to be wrapped in solemn silence with hearts lifted up to God? But we have been too much in the world. Getting and spending we lay waste our power, says the poet Wordsworth. And we have forgotten how to properly celebrate Christmas. These days having been whacked by a strong earthquake and a killer typhoon, we are beginning to wake up. Instead of partying, we plan to save our resources in order to help our suffering brothers and sisters. Self-sacrifice is the name of the game. It's not an easy thing of course but it would be worth doing because what is Christianity without self-sacrifice?
By dying on the cross Jesus, the first Christian, taught us the beauty and value of self-sacrifice. Before Calvary, he reminded those who gathered around him that they too had to take up their cross, if they wanted to follow him. He was not talking of a simple sacrifice like not partying at Christmas. He was talking of a life-changing one like what happened to Zachaeus, the tax collector, whom he "rescued" from sin. Yet for us the simple gesture of empathizing with the victims of calamities is no less meritorious in the eyes of God. For a simple act of goodness is a sign that the seed has taken roots in the heart, and that given the constant nourishment of prayer, patience and sacrifice that seed is bound to grow into a stalwart tree whose shade would be a boon to many.
Viewed under this scenario, that quake and that storm can become something of a gift from God. Many have died and countless have suffered, but this happened for a reason, and that reason could be to open our eyes to what is true and good in life as we wait for the coming of the Lord.
That God loves us so much that he gave his only Son to live among us and suffer a most painful death to give us life-this is the very lesson the Lord wants to teach us through those calamities.
Of course, those hapless victims and their loved ones would find it hard to accept the wisdom of it all, but God's ways are always difficult to understand. Yet with prayer and faith the gift of understanding is not far away, and celebrating Christmas without partying becomes a natural thing to do.